Beyond Illustration Illuminatiotts of the P Hotographic "Frontier" Carol J

Williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photographic "Frontier" JOW, Spring 2007, Vol. 46, No.2 - 29 Beyond Illustration Illuminatiotts of the P hotographic "Frontier" Carol J. Williams

HOTOGRAPHS promise a luminous doorway For what purpose was the photograph produced at into history, but only through systematic contex- what Roland Barthes calls the "point of transmis- tual interpretation will riches be excavated. Like sion"?3 other primary resources, such as personal diaries What, in your estimate, might have been the intent of or letters, photographs require systematic analysis to the photographer, or subject, in taking the image? reveal full their potential. Consider Laurel Thatcher Has the meaning, or intention, changed as the photo- Ulrich's historical interpretation of the life and labor of graph has circulated among users and over time? an eighteenth-century midwife derived from Martha This essay considers three genres of photographs Ballard's diary. Ballard's diary seemed so spare that landscape, portraiture, and images of "Indian life."- I earlier researchers failed to detect its value.'Yet Thatch- draw on my research on photography in the Pacific er Ulrich artfully teased out myriad intersecting social Northwest to demonstrate an interpretative method use- histories, relationships, characters, maps, criminal acts, ful for researchers, teachers, and students alike. Theories and interpersonal antagonisms. and methods from an interdisciplinary affay of scholars, So too photographs. As Shawn Michelle Smith re- including Roland Barthes, John Collier, Catherine A. cently noted in her analysis of 363 photographs as- Lutz, Jane L. Collins, Martha Sandweiss, Shawn Mi- sembled by W. E. B Du Bois in albums for theAmerican chelle Smith, Joanna Scherer, and Geoffrey Batchen, Negro Exhibit at the Paris exposition in 1900, contem- among others, inform my views.o porary understanding of historical photographs proves Always keep in mind this fundamental practice: Nev- difFrcult. Their social and cultural significance, while er assume photographs are a literal illustration of what self-evident to viewers of the origir rl era, has been they represent. In other words, recall the specific context obscured by the passage of time, pl ce, and shifting of the photograph's production and the.audience who cultural conditions. Researchers neces: rily reconstruct consumes it (for whatever purpose). As Barthes re- the photograph is "not only perceived, received, the circumstances of the photograph's t 'rei and produc- flected, tion in order to "make the image compr! hensible again it is read, connected more or less consciously by the for a contemporary audience, to recover their lost mean- public that consumes it to a tradition stock of signs . . . ing, and to revitalize them," and, in the case of the gesfures, attitudes, expressions, colors or effects, en- Georgia albums analyzed, by Smith, to make Du Bois's dowed with certain meanings by virtue of the practice race-based cultural criticism intelligible.' Du Bois's of a certain society."s While the photograph is indexical hand in assembling the images in the album was pur- to an identifiable subject/thing/place or person in the poseful, Smith proposed, serving as an effective counter world, it is also a portable and infinitely reproducible archive to the oppressive classificatory race taxonomies artifact. Thus the photograph is much more than mere of his time. referent because it is interpreted, consumed, and circu- Thus, without careful interpretation, photctraphic lated by viewers in a particular time, place, and within a sources, like diarie can anpear superficial or s etchy. specific cultural framework of looking. The historical This essay offers rpretrve guidelines for hist'rians researcher or student reconstructs this situated knowl- who 'vant to use photographs more effectively a: ori- edge of the spectator for the purposing of reconnecting mary s .ces i,. *heir teaching and research. Initially 'ne the historical photograph to the web of social, cultural, must spend extended time studying all within the fn re and political relations within which it was produced, in- of the photograph, and, subsequently, learn to trust yc, " terpreted, and distributed. Moreover, the historian takes trained eye in detecting what the photograph has to offe, into account how captions, or any other text placed in A series of basic questions might be pursued in order t<; close proximity, endeavors to fix or stabilize meaning on assemble a dossier of information about the photograph behalf of the photograph. Captions often infuse the that reveals deeper significance. The basic questions photograph with meanings unanticipated by the photog- include: rapher or subject.6 Who is looking? Photographs metaphorically represent much more

i 3- lllustration: llLuminations of the Photographic "Frontier" 30 Jow, Spring 2007, Vol. 46, No. 2 Williams: Beyond -

context of the nineteenth-century colonial Pacific Northwest, for example, the Anglo or Euro American photographer increasingly held greater sociopolitical po*". within the urban setting than did a female Coast Salish woman, the subject of the photograph to the left. This woman, on the other hand, may have offered her service as a photographic subject for a nominal fee, either in barter or monetary form, thus entering a commercial transaction with the studio photographer. As the commercial value of photographs of North Ameri- can Indians escalated in harmony with the gathering presence and force of tourism and, by century's end, with professionals associated with anthropology, the commercial photographer became, in some sense, in- debted to the willing Native participant, in this case a female sitter. Like the itinerant field photographer, commercial studio photographers sought any and all profitable subjects to harness for the camera and the marketplace. The rise in popularity of Indian portraits thus profited a range of consumers, including commercial photographers, anthropologists, museum collectors, .and tourists. In sum, the motive for the taking of the photograph becomes viable historical evidence to expose the economic and social identities of two individuals: the photographer and sitter. Yet, by the time the photographic artifact falls into the purview of later researchers or students, the social motives that brought the photograph 1: Hannah Maynard (British, active 1862-1913)"'Studio por- Figure existence may have been detached or lost. The orig- trait of unidentified Coast Salish womanl'no daie. into British Columbia Archives, Call #F-08915 inal individual interests involved must be reestablished to revive the motives for, and functions of, the photo- the photograph serves than what is depicted within the confines of the frame. graph. In the case of portraiture, encounter occurred between the The photograph (and portraiture in particular) manifests as evidence that a social an individual or individuals' It also an actual social encounter when two or more people met photographer and some form, monetary or the photographer stood behind the shutter' and the represents an exchange of -. between the subject and pho- subject posed in front of the lens. Prior to the shutter otherwise, that transpired lacked explicit per- movement, moreover, the participants negotiated the tographer, unless the photographer case in colonial settings and terms of the photographic event in some manner. As mission (frequently the observed in Framing the West, photographs might there- early ethnograPhY.) the Coast Salish woman fore be understood to represent a social "frontier'"t In this particular portrait, negotiation with a Portraiture, landscape, and portraits I termed "Indian willingly entered a commercial for income' Indeed, as a life" were distinct genres, all bearing significance in studio photographer, probably a seller of clams, she perhaps generating a visual narrative of colonization and settle- street-based entrepreneur, an Indian accrued com- ment of the American West. While each has defining recognized that her image as Hannah Maynard, on her characteristics, students should be taught to interpret mercial value. Photographer commitment to her business, none in isolation. part, had shown enduring her sitter, the commercial The portrait photograph often embodies a "frontier" recognizing, in accord with women as well as North of uneven relations of power; a meeting between people poteitial Jf portraiture of as the primary entre- of varying social status or divergent interests. Drawing American Indians.n She worked studio in Victoria, on Foucauldian concepts of power, W. J. T. Mitchell preneur of a successful commercial the San Juan Islands, for remarked that "the 'taking' of human subjects by a british Columbia, north of years. might also have thought photographer (or a writer) is a concrete social encounter, more than fifty Maynard seller suited a particular often between a damaged, victimized; and powerless that this image of the clam civic offi- individual and a relatively privileged observer, often client (tourist, Indian agent, anthropologist, etc.) to whom she could subse- acting as the 'eye of power,' the agent of some social' cial, museum collector, political or journalistic institution."s Within the social quentlY market it. T

" JOW, Spring 2007, Vol. 46, No. 2 31 I Williams; Beyond lllustation : Illuminations oJ' the Photo graphi' !-y'"' - I

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.Davis Barkerville:' British cotumbia Archives, cail #4-00558 Figure 2: Frederick Dally (active 1g66-1870), claim wheel and Flume, williams creek,

territory, resources, and Landscape photography of the American West also illuminates the contest over West. The camera served represented an encounter of a sort. The landscape pho- rights in the North American Euro and Anglo American coloni- tographer traveled through an environment, along a as an instrument of beginning with the earliest sur- worn or unfamiliar route with or without a local guide' zation and settlement photography to offrcially chart the The photographer's access to, knowledge, or ignorance veyors who used Explorers with cameras, such as of, the landscape depended on various conditions: gen- boundaries of land. participated in the mapping of "vir- der, race, social mobility, and economic status. Thus the John C. Fremont, recovery of who has taken the photograph is again gin" territory of the West'" territory' the western British essential to any analysis. Prior to the advent of portable, Above Oregon in and Vancouver Island hand-held cameras in the late nineteenth century, the colonies of British Columbia with Canada in 1867)' photographer required transportation and capital' (the two colonies confederated and amateur photographers la- Fhotographers also had to hire assistants to carry large- a host of professional vast corpus of images that formai photographic equipment and materials needed to bored. They generated a development of the re- develop glass negatives in situ. recorded the civic and rural land, the erection of Women of the nineteenth century did not always gion, including changes in the evidence of mining exploration, and possess the freedom or mobility of male photographers' ioads and wharves, architecture. Traveling without a male chaperone in a foreign or un- the growth of domestic and civic mines, bridges, familiar landscape was not always permissible, even for Landscape photographs depicting Anglo or Euro American women. Many women did, roads and other resource-based activity and structures, archit'ecture (as seen in figures 2- nonetheless, succeed at the occupation and business of or civic and domestic historians as signs photography across the American West, as Peter Palm- 4) have generally been embraced by the North quist among others have documented.'0 While more men of "development and modernization" of of the earliest ar- produced landscape photography, and their accomplish- American West. Honorific portraiture residents, especially ments are more easily retrieved from public documents, riving Anglo and Euro American supported the fundamental many women have also shaped the photographic vision the prominent and powerful, progressed in an orderly and and namatives of settlement. assertion that settlement must be reminded The interpretation of landscape photographs also authoritative fashion.'2 Students 32 tOw, Spring 2007, Vol. - 46, No. 2 Williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photographic "Frontier"

Figure 3: Frederick Dally (British, active 1866-1870), "China Bar Bjuff on the Cariboo Wagon Road." British Columbia Archives, Call #40386Z

Figure 4, below: Frederick Dally (Brit- ish, active 1866-1870), "Atexandra Suspension Bridge," built 1863. British Columbia Archives, Call #A-03928 "Frontier" JOW, Spring 2007, Vol. a6, No. 2 33 Williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photographic - frequently that landscapes and portraits indeed any photograph cannot be viewed in isolation.- The two genres operated- hand-in-glove as visible markers of set- tlements' seemingly inevitable progress. Portraiture of those the community deemed worthy "citizens" or any- one who embodies model aspirations of wealth, afflu- ence, or power underpinned settlement ideologies. By depicting those individuals who offered moral authority, or economic and political influence, the nation upheld the mandate of manifest destiny urging on the march of progress into so-called "virgin" or unimproved territory at the expense of others less inclined toward these values. Thus the portrait of the worthy citizen provides a counterpoint to images representative of the traditional Indian, the latter appearing reluctant or resistant to modernization. Settlement ultimately wrested territory and the control of maritime resources from the hands of the original indigenous inhabitants. Incoming Anglo and Euro American settlers and industrial speculators took control of resources and radically reconfigured individual and collective identities. Portraits, interpreted in light of the colonial ideology of modernization, harbor tangible evidence of the transformation of personal and "private" subjectivity. The late nineteenth-century formal studio portrait of a woman named Annie Hunt Spencer (figure 5) on the surface appears benign and pleasant, but, when interpreted in the context of industrialization and the changes caused by settlement, the photograph yields additional meanings and nuance. As noted earlier, the simplest path the significance of the image is to reconstruct historical Figure 5: Stephen Spencer (American, active 1858-1883), "Portrait to identify the photographer to whom the photograph is of Annie Huni (spencer);'o.XffiflffHTi attributed. Always pose the basic question: "who is ;::;,:: L\il>r"*', looking?" The photographer of this portrait was Stephen Allan Spencer, a U.S. immigrant who briefly worked as waka'wakw people who sustained seasonal villages at a "modem portrait artist prepared to take pictures in the Fort Rupert, a former Hudson's Bay trading fort, and the highest style of the art."'r Spencer's professional ambi- nearby village (which eventually became Alert Bay.) tion, and his personal relationship with Annie Hunt and Spencer met and married Annie Hunt, born from a her kin, personifies some of the grander social and eco- mixed-blood union between Robert Hunt, a Hudson's nomic transformations characteristic of the era and re- Bay Scottish trader who managed trade at Fort Rupert, gion. By 1881, Spencer had sold the urban studio he op- and Mary Ebbetts, a Tlingit woman. Cohabitations and erated in Victoria to permanently relocate in Alert Bay marriages between local indigenous women and where he eventually managed the cannery. Alert Bay is Anglo/Euro American men had long history in the re- well known as an industrial cannery village and mar- gion from the time of contact. Such liaisons profited the itime port, situated on the crescent-shaped Cormorant trader by advancing their prospects, status, and influ- Island east of Brought and Queen Charlotte Straits on ence. From the beginning of contact, therefore, indige- the inland passage (260 miles north of Seattle). nous, and later mixed-blood women served as mediators Spencer's presence in the region paired with his photo- between indigenous tribal leaders and kin and Anglo or graphic abilities gave rise to many of the earliest docu- Euro American traders. mentary images of Alert Bay. They are still widely em- By all appearances, Spencer's marriage to Annie ployed in contemporary museum exhibits and in Hunt enhanced his commercial prospects and harmo- historical surveys. nized his relations with local indigenous fishers on the Alert Bay's identity as an industrial port came about north coast recruited to the seasonal labor of the cannery partially as a result of Spencer's entrepreneurial ambi- operation. Annie Hunt's marriage "out" to Stephen tions. In 1873, Spencer and a partner commercially Spencer also transformed her identity from a child of fished the salmon of the local Nimpkish River, using the mixed marriage, who straddled two cultures, to the traditional fishing grounds of the local Kwak- status of affluent wife of an ambitious businessman. 34 Jow, Spring 2007, Vol. 46, No. 2 Williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photographic "Frontier" -

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Once married and a mother, Hunt and the children of her studio photographer Hannah Maynard), Oregon Hast- union were increasingly perceived as white. In contrast, ings, and Edward Dossetter appeared in offtcial govern- Hunt's brother George Hunt, who married a Kwak- ment reports that endeavored to portray the state of the waka'wakw woman and become a primary coastal re- Indian.'t' gional informant of German-American anthropologist Images of "Indian life" didn't merely sustain bureau- Franz Boas, was perceived not only as an authority on cratic value within the time of thei production and dis- indigenous tradition and life ways but his identity was tribution; these photographs becam increasingly signif- conceived as indigenous through and through.'o icant to anthropological resear. n and exposition By 1892, Alert Bay had emerged as an important precisely because they capture the subjrct at a particular locus of regional industrial commerce and standard time. Early amateur ethnographers recognized the value stopover of all Alaskan-bound traffic. Landscape images of the photographic document, as contemporary re- of Alert Bay or any other villages along the inland mar- searchers have shown. By the mid-twentieth century, itime route arose from industrial interests. Annie Hunt however, an interactive and expansive use of photo- Spencer's portrait similarly emerged from the major so- graphic and film sources produced innovations in an- cioeconomic and cultural transformations stimulated by thropological research." Inspired by the documentary Anglo/Euro American ambition for the region and its re- project of the Farm Security Administration photog- sources. Thus portraiture's signification often exceeds raphers, such ad Roy E. Stryker, John Collier, an anthro- the sitter's appearance. pological fieldworker and photographer, argued that the Historians of the North American West quickly grew camera, as a research tool, might be an extension of the familiar with images that depict Indians, not as modern eye.'8 Discussing the camera as a tool of observation, subjects adapting to industrial change as represented by Collier proposed systematic methods of documentation the portrait of Annie Hunt Spencer, but to images claim- in the research field and a method by which to catalog ing to portray the culture of traditional "Indian life." The and identify photographs taken. Indirectly, he addressed analysis of such images leads the researcher to under- how researchers should interpret photographs. He stand the ideological functions of photography in the sought "to outline how the camera can be used to ex- services of the state or its representatives: Indian agents, plore and to analyze, so that [researchers] can use pho- missionaries, and anthropologists. Opposite is a sample tography not only to show what we have already found page showing images of North American Indians of the out by some other means, but actually to extend our Pacific Northwest from an album assembled by itinerant visual processes and to help us find out more."'n British photographer Frederick Dally, active in the re- In the contemporary era, the analysis of historical gion from 1866 to l870.rs Dally assembled numerous photographs has been conducted by individual tribal individual portraits he had taken in his capacity as an researchers for the purpose of reestablishing family itinerant photographer (and dentist!) Looking closely genealogies. They also collect tribal histories of land you will observe that someone, Dally possibly, cap- and resource use, compiling visual evidence toward tioned many of the images after mounting them in the settlement of modern land claims and treaty negotia- album. tions. The original purpose of the earliest photographs Dally's access to these indigenous subjects was not of "Indian life," however, was to represent the power mere serendipity. The opportunity to visit various tribal and policies of the state over North American Indians villages arose from an invitation by Governor A. E. in favor of territorial expansion and settlement. Such Kennedy on a government tour of inspection conducted images do not necessarily represent actual conditions on the navy gunboat, HMS Scout.'fhe purpose of this or circumstances experienced by indigenous subjects or 1866 expedition was official and bureaucratic: the gov- sitters but rather might be understood as superficial ernment wished to investigate and assess the conditions glimpses or "outsider" perceptions of North American and attitudes of the Indian tribes. The expedition also Indian existence of the time. This is not to say that hoped to mediate Indian relations with settlers, the latter these images did not embody truths of some kind or residing in ever closer proximity to Indian villages and that factual knowledge cannot be derived from them, demanding greater access to indigenous hunting and but the historian must be cognizant of the bureaucratic fishing grounds. Dally's professional credibility as a intentionality that gave rise to such imagery. The limits photographer increased with this affiliation with those of the images must always figure in contemporary holding government office, subsequently permitting him analysis. to characterize his commercial specialties as "Photo- Across the continent, cameras were employed on be- graphic Views of British Columbia, Vancouver Island, half of bureaucratic investigations conducted by agents Puget Sound, and of Indians." Other photographers of state policies. In her consideration of the companion- worked on similar govemment-sponsored "tours of in- ate relationship between Idaho photographer Jane Gay spection" to the maritime villages of Mowachaht, Clay- and Dawes Act policy lobbyist Alice Fletcher from 1889 oquot, Haida, Tshimshian, and Kwakwak'wakw tribes. to 1892, literary theorist, Nicole Tonkovich suggested Works by Richard Maynard (husband and partner of that Gay's photographs of the Nez Perces, among whom 36 Jow, Spring 2007, Vol.46, No. 2 Williams: of the Photographic "Frontier" - Beyond lllustration: Illumination,s

the couple were stationed, emphasized the "banal in an era ofspectacular landscape photography . . . capturfing] men and women engaged in the quotidian." Tonkevich argues that Gay's photographs avoided exoticizing the Nez Perces and, were as result distinct from the conven- tions of expeditionary photography. Nonetheless, Gay's presence in Nez Perce territory represented bureaucratic state interests, and ultimately her documentary photographs assisted Alice Fletcher in her assignment to implement the Dawes Act.'o American photographer, Edward Dossetter, like Dally, was on an official tour of inspection to the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1881 with the Canadian federal Superintendent of Indian a.ffairs, Israel Powell. Dos- setter portrayed an elder Haida woman weaving a hat at Yan or Massett village, as shown in figure 7. He photographed the woman in profile, thereby directing the viewer's attention to the existence of the woman's lip labret. The labret, a traditional form of body modification to show status, had been roundly criticized by Anglo and Euro American travelers, amateur ethno- Figure 7: Edward Dossetter (American, active 1881-1890), "OId Hydah (sic) Woman,"Yan or Massett, Queen Charlotte lslands. graphers, Indian agents, and government officials British Columbia Archives. Cail #8-03592 alike. They characterized the practice as obsolete, even

Figure 8: Charles Tate (Methodist missionary stationed among the Central Coast Salish from 1899-1913), "Potlatch Scramble at Quamichan (Duncan), Vancouver lsland," crTca 191 3 Royal British Columbia Museum, Anthropology collection, PN#1500

i Williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photographic "Frontier" JO\V, Spring 200?, Vol. 46, No. 2 - 37 barbaric. Dossetter's photographic emphasis on the pro- conversions by their constituents. They commonly illus- hle, and hence this culturally specific aspect of the trated these stories with a pair of photographs, one taken woman's appearance, aligned his perspective with the before conversion and another after. For the non-Native much repeated moral disapproval expressed about the viewer, oft'en those targeted to financially support the labret and other traditions of body modification, includ- missionary campaign, the before- and after- conversion ing the Salish practice of head binding. These judg- story and photographs symbolized rejection of negative ments, exercised across numerous visual and written traditions, practices, or habits associated with Indian sources, retrospectively show that the contest of power "savagery" or tradition. As Crosby's comments that used the bodies and cultural behaviors of disenfran- follow imply, Native acceptance of settler dress and chised women, as exemplified by Dossetter's portrait, as Christian ritual announced a willingness on the part of the staging ground to fight the struggle for cultural su- the convert to embrace Euro American values. The periority. two photographs depicted here, read in tandem with Cultural bias also appears clearly in the motivations Crosby's descriptions of Sallosalton, subscribed to the of Charles Tate, a well known Methodist missionary. formulaic conversion success story. However, these who had been stationed among coastal Indians over fifty honorific portraits of Sallosalton are undermined when years, in his discussion of a photograph of a potlatch at interlaced with the narrative of Crosby's memoirs. The Quamichan. The image, figure 8, captured the moment photographs commemorate not Sallosalton but rather of the blanket giveaway to guests, when gifts are tossed Crosby's personal aggrandizing claim of missionary off the roof of a large Coast Salish house. Tate, in Dun- success among the Nanaimo Coast Salish. can located on southern Vancouver Island, apparently In retrospect, Crosby's statements reveal the disposi- took the photograph, circa 1913, without permission of tion and bias'of the interpreter more than the accom- the subjects. Tate's motive for this, and others taken at plishments of the subject. Of his initial encounter with the same potlatch, was not benevolent, ethnographic, or Sallosalton, Crosby stated "a bright little fellow . . . with touristic. Rather in support letters, Tate expressed anger no clothing on except a short print shirt, and painted up and resentment toward the local Indian agent who, as in the strangest fashion, with a tuft of his hair tied on the Tate opined, had failed his Native charges by allowing the potlatch to occur despite federal prohibitions against all rituals, dance, and traditional practices. Tate zealous- ly supported the prohibition and harshly criticized the federal agent for his neglect of duty. In other words, the photograph offered evidence of a jurisdictional battle between two men, who each saw themselves as autho- rized to scrutinize and critique the actions of the Coast Salish at early twentieth century. While the perspective and motives on the potlatch prohibition held by the Coast Salish is less tangible in this context, they seemed willing to risk criminalization by ignoring the prohibition. Methodists, as weil as ministers of other sects in the region, commonly deployed the camera toward their aspirations to convert Native peoples, as demonstrated in the interpretation of the following two images (figures 9 and 10). The photographs depicting teen preacher David Sallosalton, who was stationed among the Nanaimo people beginning in April i862, capture a brief interval in an eight-year process of acculturation and conversion. Figure 9 depicts Nanaimo convert David Sallosalton standing beside Methodist minister Thomas Crosby. Figure 10 combines a vignette portrait of Sallosalton with explanatory captions, celebrat- ing Sallosalton's contribution as a young missionary prior to his death from tuberculosis at age nineteen in r872. Missionaries, like Tate and Crosby, encouraged cultural change among Native people. To advertise mis- Figure 9: Unknown photographer, "David Sallosalton (standing) and sionary success beyond the remote settings in which Methodist Missionary Thomas Crosby (sitting)," circa 1870. they worked, missionaries spun tales of individual British Columbia Atchives, Call #D-05223 "Frontier" Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photograihic Jow, Spring 2007, Vol. 46, No' 2 williams: 38 -

ments about the divergent poses adopted by the ti isrt' S1 &dd $ gg: - vv n. 9&'s 1*14 h3!t, ktsi d ' ' two men and consider the purpose and symbol- ic meanings of the props depicted' The presence of a book, or Bible, in the hands of Crosby is directly equated with his learned status and spir- itual authority thus placing power in the realm of the older man. This portrayal leads to the perception of the Crosby and Sallosalton's rela- iionrtrip as unequal benevolent paternalism, with Ciosby possessing the greater clout' The costume worn by each also emphasizes diverg- ing status, notably the ill-fitting garment of Sallosalton. This kind of systematic response to the content of the photograph encourages the interpreter to initially work with what is de- picteO within the'bounds of the frame and sub- iequently seek out other supporting documents that might aid in broadening and expanding the interPretation. In conclusion, the photographic artifact may be considered the evidentiary remains of contact, or encounter, between individuals or the photographer's engagement with a particular iundt*pe. The photograph - a material object often survives beyond the existence of the -sitter or the photographer and may acquire a commemorative function, as in the case of the Sallosalton card that was placed in Crosby's memoirs. The photograph's mobility is crucial to understanding photography and its effects' Photographs circulate well beyond their original putpot" and meaning, and they tT q9 infused I r \\' I I I :..!1.1"il>'\ t.'l'{15, with or emptied of meaning. To revitalize or re- suscitate the meaning of the photograph, the ': \ lt r"l,){l*r.,:f}{"ltri I,,lli;lr: I',r*;lliter ' motive for its production must be sought' For t i"-lr t.'* rl ir lrilri;i" whom and why was a photograph originally {r$s;-r$;r,} produced? How did subsequent destinations and uses of the photograph change its ascribed rhese represent questions basic to vururrrvrd' reJU meaning? f,;tf',:'r:U:y,XiXl"|1!ilt"f i*?lio!fi".,i.l?iit|Ill3il"3Jr['il"1"i33i:.,r*rsrr tt:-d"l t:i: r870r, British cotumbia Archives, catt#,46s5s 1*"if::?:l::::.^t:" "n.outugingway, photographs simultaneously serve as ob- jects and ideai, and historians who use photographs as . . . Santana (Sallosalton was his Chris- top of his head. of the multiplicity of uses of the Indian, and had en- sources must conceive tianized name) was a real flathead photograph' dured all the suffering belonging to such a barbarous ^ i-to.oon+inn nf me photograph is a complex^r^- intersection of meaning custom." "It was necessary," declared CrorUy, u, lt in- TF and function, embodying overlapping strands of history' scribing the ideological message or tir" pnotJgff, A memory' economics'.and social relations' Meanings of a dress Sallosalton up a little Lore than he had been photogiaph p.o.d""."d not only by the maker (the accustomed to if he was to live with a white man, and so T: pttotoltuptt"r) but also by the subject (the sitter) and by a new suit of clothes was procurea. u" rooteo qoit" uL*it t"i Infinitely reproducible' as bright and neat in his new atiire, and ,oon prou"a u ,rr"- itt" long as the negative-:.ti.1tiTl remains available, a photograph ful and active assistant to the missionary in working in- may be reproduced in more than one environment and side and outside of the little home.",, for-differing purposes' The captions may change with Asked to respond to this first photograph (figure 9) each use in an attempt to anchor the meaning of the without any context or historical background) ,"tuO""tt a text' ,p"*late on the men's relationihip' Describing image with *igtr, Th'"" to**on genres of photograph circulated in the internal gazes ofthe sitters within ,ft" fru*"-unJ,itZ the nineteenth century American West portraits' photographe r's gazeat the subjects, students -ake com- - 2 39 Williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations of the Photographic "Frontier" ,rOW, Spring 2007, Voi. 45, No. - landscape, and images of "Indian life." I have sug- contradictory to the image. In your estimate, who gested methods by which instructors teaching histori- was/is the author of the text or caption and for what cal interpretation might move their students beyond the purpose? Does the caption anchor or fix the meaning uie of photographs as simplistic illustrations. The ex-, of the'image? Does the caption, title or text, potentially tended set of questions that follow may guide you in conflict with the original intention of the photograph teaching the interpretation of photographs to students. or photographer? The aim is to create a dossier that allows contemporary . If the photograph is a portrait, is the status of the sub- viewers to reconnect the image with its original time, jects classifiable in any way, as signified by props or place, and function. The methods of Lutz and Collins' costume? have been particularly influential in developing these . If this is a landscape photograph, is the place/region or questions, so reviewing their scholarship is heartily time identihable? If so, how exactly? recommended.22 NOTES . How did different viewers, depending on their invest- 1. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwift's Tale: The Lift of Martha Bal- ment in the photograph, interpret the significance of lard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (NY: Vintage Books, i 990). Photography on the Color Line W. E. B. object/photograph, according to their own needs, 2. Shawn Michelle Smith, the Du Bois, Race, andVisual Culture (Durham, NC: Duke Universi- time, and purpose? ty Press,2004),2. . Who, in your view, is the producer or sponsor of the 3. Roland Barthes, "The Photographic Message," lmage-Music-Text, (London: Fontana Press, 1977). photograph? 4. Carol Williams, Framing the West: Race, Gender and the Photo- . Do you imagine that the sitter participated in any as- graphic Frontii'r in the Pacific Northwest (NY: Oxford Univer- pect of the production of the photograph? sity Press, 2003); Susan Bernadin, Melody Graulich, Lisa Mac- Farlane, and Nicole Tonkovich, with an afterword by Louis . Where is the photographer positioned in relation to the Owens, Trading Gazes: Euro American Women Photographers subiect? Describe the pathway of gazes between sub- and Native North Americans, 1880-1940 (New Brunswick, NJ: jects depicted in the images? Rutgers University Press, 2003.); John Collier, Jr., Vsual Anthro' Method (Nt Holt' Rinehart . the qualities of the photograph, is it pology: Photography as a Research Based on all of and Winston, 1967); Lucien Taylor, editor, Visualizing Theory: possible to determine the nature of the relationship be- Selected Essays fromV.A.R, 1990-1994 (NY: Routledge, 1994); tween the subjects depicted in the photograph, if more Christopher Ptnney, Camera Indica: The Social Lifu of Indian (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); is shown? Photographs than one individual Catherine A. Lutz and Jane L. Collins, Reading National Geo' . What, in your estimate, is the relationship between the graphic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)l Geoffrey person who took the photograph and the person por- Batchen, Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004); Martha A. Sandweiss, Prlnt trayed? the Legend: Photography and the American Wesr (New Haven, . Who commissioned the photograph and for what orig- CT: Yale University Press,2002); Joanna Cohan Scherer, A Dan- inal purpose? ish Photographer of ldaho Indians, Benedict Wrensted (Norman, . the photograph OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006); Jessamyn Neuhaus, By what means and conditions did "Colonizing the Coffee Table: National Geographic Magazine arrive at the place you found it? Why and how did and Erasure of Difference in the Representation of Women," this photograph find its way into an archive or collec- American Periodicals: A journal of history, criticism, and bibli' ography,T (1997): 1-26; Mick Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the tion? ioih A*erican Indian, Incorporated (Cambridge: Cambridge . Would you consider this photograph a private or pub- University Press, 1998); Alan Trachtenberg Shade s of Hiawatha: lic image; does it embody a public or private func- Staging Indians, Making Americans 1880-1930 (NY: Hill and Laura Peers with members of debate, as illuminated by Wang, ZOOS); Alison K. Brown and tion? Another important the (ainai Nation, "Picrares Bring Us Messages" Sinaakssiiksi John Berger and Geoffrey Batchen, concerns mythic or aohtsimaahp ihko okiyaawa : Photo I r(lphs and Historie s from the arbitrary division between public and private photo- Kainai Naiion (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006); "Gendered Differences between Photog- most commonly explore photo- Bobbi Rahder, Stylistic graphs. Historians raphers of Native Americans at the Turn of the Century," J-ournal graphs found in public archives, whereas anthropolo- of the West 35, 1 (1996): 86-95; John Tagg, The Burden of Repre' gists might elicit knowledge from an informant who ientation: Essays on Photographies and Histories( London: Macmillan, 1988.) private snapshots or photographs. Private and shares 5. Roland Barthes, "The Photographic Message," Image-Music-Text public images have different connotations. (London: Fontana Press, 1977), 19.27 . . If the photograph has been placed in an album and has 6. Barthes also contemplates the effects of the caption or other tex- photograph is placed, "The Photo- images nearby, how does this tual environs within which the relationship to other graphic Message," 15. "assembly" of images affect interpretation? Who as- 7. Williams, Framing the West,8-9. sembled this album and for what purpose? 8. W. J. T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press' 1994), .Is titled in any manner? Representation the photograph captioned or 288. Captions may appear on the back or front of the 9. Framing the West , 63-65; Claire Weissman Wilks, The Magic photograph. They may have been added retrospec- Box: The Eccentric Genius of Hannah Maynard (Toronto: Exile "The Multiple Self of Hannah placed album or any other Editions, 1980); David Mattison, tively after being in an Maynard," Vanguard (October 1980): 14-19; David Mattison, system- of display. The captions inevitably influence "Richard Maynard, Photographer of Victoria, BC," History of the meaning of the image, and are sometimes entirely Photography (April-June 1985): 109-129. 1 1 a

40 JoW, Spring 2007, Vol. 46, No. 2 williams: Beyond lllustration: Illuminations photographic { - of the "Frontier"

"Photographers 10. Peter Palmquist, in Petticoats," Journal of the lished paper presented at University of New Mexico, September West, 21, 2(198I): 58-64; Martha Kennedy, "Nebraska's Women 2000. Photographers," Nebraska History 72,2 (1991): 62-77, Delorcs 15. Framing the West ,63-65., Joan Swartz, "Images of Early British Morrow, "Female Photographers on the Frontier: Montana's Lady Columbia Landscape Photography: I 85 8- 1 8 88,,' (masteis thesis, Photographer Artists," I 866-l 900, Montana, 32, 3 (1982): 7 6-84; University of British Columbia, 1977); Andrew Birrell, ,.Freder_ Cheryl Collins, "Women at Work Manhattan, in KS, 1890-1910,,, ick Dally: Photo Chronicler of BC a Century Ago,,, Canadian Journal of the West 21, 2(1982): 33-40; Joanna Cohan Scherer, A P hotog raphy (February 1977): 14-19. Danish Photographer of ldaho Indians, Benedict Wrensted (Nor- 16. Framing the West,72-84. man, OK: University of Oklahoma peter palmquist, Press, 2006); 17. On two historical overviews of anthropology's engagement with ed., Carnera Fiends and Kodak Girls: 50 Selections bt and ibout piotography see Elizabeth Edwards, ed., photug;aphy and An_ in Photography, 1840-1930 (Ny press, lVomey Midmarch l9g9); thropology: 1860-1920 (London: Royal Anthropoiogical Insti_ Peter Palmquist, ed., Camera Fiends and Kodak Girls II: 60 Se- tute,1992); and James Ryan, Picturing Empire; photography and lections by and about Women in photography, l8jj-1g65 (Ny: the Visualization of the Britislz Empire (Chicago: Chicago-Uni_ Midmarch Press, 1995.); Peter Palmquist, A Bibtiography of Writ- versity Press, 1997). ings by and about Women in Photography, (Arcata, IB50-199d 18. Collier, Jr., Visual Anthropology: photography as a Research CA: Palmquist seif-published, 1994); Williams, Framing the Method (NY Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967). West. 19. Collier, 6. 11. Sandweiss, Print the Legend,88-120. 20. Susan Bemadin, Melody Graulich, Lisa MacFarlane, and Nicole 12. Photographer and photographic theorist Alan Sekula distin- Tonkovich, Trading Gazes: Euro Anrcricun Wonten photogra- guished between honorific and repressive photographs in his ger- phers and Native NorthAmericans, I8B0-1940, with an minal.essay "Thg-lody afterriord and the Archive," ii The Contesl of by Louis Owens (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University pr.ess, Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography, Richard Bolton, ed. 2003),34. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989), 344-390. 21. Framing the West, 92 citing Crosby. David Saltosalton: A young l3 Framing the West, 67 -72. M,issionary Hero {Toronto: Depaftment of Missionary Literaturi l4 Carol Williams, "Fragments of a Rich Life, Comparative Modern of the Methodist Church, 1906),4-5,8, 1l-12. Biographies of North American Indian Identity on the Nonhwest 22. L,.rtz and Collins, Reading National Geographic. Pacific Coast: Annie Hunt Spencer and George Hunt," unpub_

Carol Williams teaches Women's Studies and US Women's History with a specialty in Native American women's history. Her award winning book Framing the Wpst: Race, Gender aid the Photographic Frontier in the pacific Northwest (OlJp 2003) discusses women's roles in nation building and the photographic ideas of 'Indian' lif'e enlisted to promote lgth century Euro American settlement. By considering how in_ digenous peoples collected and commissioned photographs from 1862 onward, Framing the West unravels the convention- a1 perception that the Euro American gaze dominated photographic imagery. Prior to entering academia Williams,worked for several years as a waitress entering higher education as a self'-taught artist. She has a long-standing commitment to feminist cultural activism and has published diverse articles and interviews on women and contemporary art in North America.